The present invention relates generally to a welding apparatus and, more particularly, a welding apparatus having a specially configured louver assembly for a vent opening in the welding apparatus.
In the design and engineering of various types of industrial equipment, such as welding apparatus, it is conventional to provide an enclosure that surrounds and contains the components used to carry out the purpose of the apparatus to protect the operative components as well as protect persons from inadvertently coming in contact with certain of the components that can be hazardous to individuals.
The downside of such enclosures is, of course, that many of such components require cooling to maintain their temperature within certain prescribed operating limits and there is, therefore, a need to provide adequate ventilation, generally forced ventilation, so that sufficient ambient air can enter the enclosure to act as a cooling medium. Accordingly, the welding apparatus normally has one or more vent openings in the enclosure to allow the ambient air to enter into the enclosure to provide that cooling function.
With welding apparatus, however, there are certain hazardous components that pose a real risk of an electrical shock if contacted by a person or if some foreign object is inserted into the interior of the enclosure to make a contact with those components. As such there must be a limit on the vent openings that are provided in the enclosure to protect such persons. Those vent openings are, therefore, governed by certain industry standards that must be followed in the construction of such apparatus to qualify for a desired rating for the apparatus.
In the welding industry, therefore, as a standard, the vent opening is required, in order to attain a certain rating, to be constructed so as to prevent a straight cylindrical probe having a diameter of about 2.5 mm from penetrating the vent opening to reach the internal area of the enclosure.
Therefore, while some vent openings of welding apparatus have conventional louvers across the vent opening, the conventional louvers also then have a wire mesh screen proximate to the louvers in order to provide a means of preventing that aforedescribed probe from passing through the louvers and into the interior of the enclosure.
Alternatively, there can be a perforated metal grill that covers the vent open of a welding apparatus; however, obviously, the perforations in such metal grill must be smaller than the aforementioned 2.5 mm probe in order to meet the rating standard for welding apparatus.
With either alternative, that is, with a wire mesh screen, or with a perforated metal grill, however, there is considerable resistance that is encountered to the passage of ambient air through the vent openings and thus, while acceptable from the standpoint of the probe test, the arrangements are not particularly desirable with respect to the free movement of ambient air through the vent openings.
Accordingly, there is a problem in that there needs to be some optimization to allow the ambient air into the enclosure through the vent opening while, at the same time, prevent the standard probe from entering through the vent opening and into the enclosure to touch the internal components of the apparatus.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a louver configuration that could be usable within the vent opening of a welding apparatus that would prevent the standard probe from passing through the louver configuration while allowing sufficient ambient air to enter the enclosure to cool the components within the enclosure.
The present invention is directed to an improved louver configuration for a vent opening of an assembled apparatus, preferable a welding apparatus.
In the preferred embodiment, and as will be specifically described herein, the welding apparatus comprises an enclosure that contains the various components needed to provide a selectively variable current to carry out the welding process. The enclosure has a vent opening therein to allow ambient air to circulate though the enclosure.
In such apparatus, there is normally an enclosure with end panels. That is, there is a front panel and a rear panel to allow the circulation of ambient air through the enclosure. In the present invention, the specially configured louvers are provided in the rear panel to prevent intrusion to an area in the enclosure where the primary power is near. Accordingly, there is formed a plurality of louvers in the rear panel that span the vent opening, are parallel to each other, and have the same configuration. The louvers are formed such that adjacent louvers are closely spaced apart and basically have the same side profile so that each of the louvers is aligned with each other louver.
Basically, each louver is specially constructed and has a front portion that is generally planar and has a front edge that faces outwardly with respect to the interior of the welding apparatus. There is also a rear portion that is also planar and which extends toward the interior of the enclosure ending in a rear edge facing inwardly toward the interior of the welding apparatus and is preferably oriented in a plane that is generally horizontal. The rear portion and the front portion intersect at an angle to form an intermediate edge.
With the aforedescribed configuration, the front edge of the louvers extends outwardly with respect to the interior of the enclosure and therefore repels liquids that hit the front area of the enclosure since the front portion of each louver is angled downwardly in the direction away from the interior of the enclosure. As such, the liquid runs downwardly such that the liquid does not enter into the interior of the enclosure. On the other hand, the rear portions are oriented so as to be generally horizontal so that the air entering through the vent opening is less turbulent as it enters the interior of the enclosure and therefore the cooling effect is more efficient.
In all, with the present configuration of louvers, the spacing between adjacent louvers not only enhances the flow of air, but reduces the problem of dirt and debris clogging the openings between the louvers.
Various other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description and the drawings.